Wall Piece Installed

The final piece for the Oldham Integrated Care Centre is now installed.

April Showers Bring May Flowers (wall based Droplet)

The wall based droplet is now complete, parabolic lens and all!

The flower floats just above the surface of the sculpture... or does it?

Try to pick it up....

... there's nothing there!

Droplet Finished and in Place

The Droplet is sited here...http://www.community1stoldham.co.uk/LIFT-projects-detail.asp?id=13... on the second floor, audiology department.

The Painted Droplet

Today the Droplet returned from the spray shop in all its glory.

The colour flip paint goes between purple and green, with a few other colours depending on the light.

The reflective quality of the paint has astounded me... it is a million times better than I had ever imagined.

The final sanding

The finishing kit.

The piece has been primed and sanded, then primed and sanded... then primed and sanded again. I'm finally down to a 500 grit paper and the piece is smooth and ready for spraying.

To satisfy H&S the piece is being 'man tested'.

Can the piece can withstand the weight of a 12 stone man standing on its edge pulling from the top with out any movement?.... tick!!

Cast Completed May 26th 2010

Today we put the mould back together, laminating each piece in place.

Once together the cast was left to set thoroughly inside the mould.

Meanwhile the base was removed from its mould.

Once set the mould is removed piece by piece to reveal the cast inside.

The cast is compete...

The next few days will be spent sanding and finishing the surface of the cast in preparation for painting.

Oldham ICC, Work in Progress May 2010

Filling the six sections of the mould.

The base ready to be taken out of its mould.

Test Piece

The main Droplet piece is ready for casting but for once I am taking the time to do a test piece before commencing with the main cast. I'm intending to cast the piece in fibre glass from a fibre glass mould. Although I've made a number of fibre glass casts before I've never made a fibre glass mould. I feel it only sensible to do a test.

The two part fibre glass mould layered up with the final cast.

Once the two part mould has put together the join must be sealed and laminated inside.

The final cast ready for finishing... it worked!! Now to make the final piece.

Another week of sanding and filling

This week I've continued to sand and fill the base for the Droplet.
It's a relatively slow process as each layer has to dry thoroughly before sanding. The good weather has helped and I've been able to leave the piece out in the sun to dry.

It's almost ready for casting. This week I will begin to make the mould.
I've started to work on the wall piece that accompanies the Droplet, it can be seen behind me in the photo above.

A Week of Filling and Sanding

The polystyrene core is coated with a finishing skim plaster. Several layers need to be applied to achieve the finish I want. The above photograph shows the second layer being applied to be base of the sculpture.

All week I've been coating and sanding back, coating and sanding back. I've still some way to go before the desired finish is achieved. Once I've got the surface refined I can begin to make my mould for casting it into fibre glass.

Mould and maquette.

Plick... work in progress - Day 2

Beginning to refine the shape using a surform.

I sit amidst a sea of polystyrene... must wash my boiler suit!

End of day 2. The piece is beginning to take shape.
Once I have refined the shape I will coat it with finishing plaster to as pristine a surface as I can achieve. I will then take a mould from this to cast the fibre glass sculpture.

Plick... work in progress

Today I started to rough out the core for my piece for the Oldham ICC.


End of day 1.... still a bit to go!

Plick

Plick! Every few minutes that sound resonates around the studio as another drop of water falls into the bucket under the leak in the roof.

My brief for the project was to develop a piece inspired by the phrase,'April Showers Bring May Flowers'... I've been batting around ideas for the past few weeks and finally have come up with a solution. Keep it simple.

The photos show my maquette, a half size model of the final design. I intend to cast the piece in fibre glass. It will have a highly polished surface finished with a colour shifting automotive paint.

The piece is to be sited indoors in a waiting room in the ICC. It's been a struggle for me to get my head round siting something indoors, with all the restrictions 4 walls can create. I am not used to carpets!! I think that I may make the piece look as though it hovers... though this has not been resolved yet.

I will also be making a wall based piece and will post images in due course.